Play all audios:
GLASGOW, Scotland — John Kerry, in a quick aside with a few reporters here, offered the glass-half-full take on why a bunch of voluntary pledges to ward off climate change catastrophe is
good reason for real hope. DRIVING THE NEWS: The U.S. special climate envoy, moments after 100+ nations agreed to steeply reduce the potent planet-warming gas methane, was asked about the
absence of ways to enforce it. * "We have incredible accountability through satellite measurements. And in most of this, it's peer pressure and public scrutiny and humiliation and
other things that act as incentives," he said. WHY IT MATTERS: "Peer pressure" and "public scrutiny" and "humiliation" sound like a description of high
school, but it also sums up the dynamic of much-hoped-for global climate cooperation. Similar dynamics have also undergirded past environmental agreements that at least initially lacked
teeth. * There's very little diplomats can do to force countries to make good on their climate commitments in the UN process, whether it's their formal pledges under the Paris
Agreement or ad-hoc arrangements like the new methane coalition. * That's actually part of how Kerry sold the pledge to skeptical nations, Bloomberg reports. * But what this format can
accomplish — or at least that's the hope — is to establish new international norms and standards that ultimately move policy. And technology is, at least in the case of methane, moving
quickly to point the way. THE INTRIGUE: Now let's turn to the first part of Kerry's comment, the part about accountability through satellite measurements. * It gets to how climate
watchdog groups and climate tech companies have increasingly sophisticated satellite monitoring at their disposal to pinpoint emissions sources and levels. * For example, MethaneSAT,
sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund, aims to provide global, high-resolution coverage of methane emissions from oil and gas facilities when it launches in 2023. * "Field
information, real information, helps you better understand the magnitude of the problem and what you can do about it," Mark Brownstein, EDF's senior vice president of energy, told
Axios. * Similar efforts on carbon emissions hunting satellites are underway, with an ambitious organization involving former vice president Al Gore, known as Climate TRACE, already tracking
carbon emissions measurements around the world. GO DEEPER: What to know about COP26 in Glasgow _Ben reported from Glasgow._ _Andrew contributed reporting from Washington, D.C._